Downloadable reality
by MatrixMeddler
Summary: One ship. One chance. New heroes and the fear that they will fail.
1. Pursuit of contact

Chapter One.

The computer screen flashed with green numbers and as the middle-aged man in front of it slept, somewhere in the matrix, two heavily armed men in black suits darted across the town square outside the man's quarters.

Suddenly, roused by gunfire and an explosion of fiery green light, which in itself is unexplainable, the middle-aged man opened his tired grey eyes alive however with some dormant electricity trying to squirm its way into some new adventure.

He was wearing some faint grey overalls as did all those who lived in Grey District as it was the customary 'ropa' that bore your identity and showed others where you stood in a world divided by computers and a class systems both warring against each other but still uniting to create a resistance against the initial ideas of freedom amongst the human race. And as it were, the humans created A.I. which had a part to play in the division of the humans and foiling the matrix itself.

Martyn, as the old man was named, sat up and stared at the screen with the forever running symbols to see what just had happened in the square, where he so humbly lived. An unknown symbol flew from one side of the screen to the other and joined with another to form a compound, symbolising two unknown people nearby. In turn, four more symbols dashed over to the left of the screen to meet the compound and there at that specific moment there was an expulsion of green fragmented light showing that the four of the many guards in Grey District had killed the two men.

When he was sure it was safe, Martyn wandered over to the only window in his flat. He peered out through his spectacles to the cover-up world below that was the world at the end of the 21st century, but really was a wasteland where the sun failed to penetrate and purify the earth's atmosphere.

Down below there were two bodies bathed in a pool of blood nearby an empty telephone booth, where the phone had been dislodged and used as an escape route to the real world.

This dimension as I am sure you have gathered by now is the appendix, the source of all information within information, the world that can view the matrix whilst inside the matrix in computer form whilst giving the necessities to allow life to flourish. In other words, a second matrix, identical to the first, where you can see the events of the matrix via computer and one's naked eye.

This world was only created as a way of preserving the human race, a second chance since Zion was destroyed a decade ago by the machines.

The story of the two terminated programmes below Martyn's window was a simple one.

Humans, ever since the destruction of Zion, which are controlled by a hidden machine field, plugging them into the second matrix, have been travelling back and forth to the real world where the field is located, where many thousands are plugged in, to revive small colonies of humans that escaped the siege of Zion ten years back and have struggled to survive in the depths of the sewers of the real world as the machines hunt them.

Martyn knows this all too well. He too was a soldier at the dock of Zion when the sentinels breached the bay. The only way he escaped was cowering in the corner of the bay and when a heavy explosion struck, he found his way back into the city and plugged himself into a computer, and found his way into a database. Whilst electronically plugged in, Martyn forged a memory of himself, the closest thing to himself. A programme, if you will. And it was with this programme that Martyn and many others doing the same managed to stumble across the second matrix and live inside as a digitally enhanced programme, transporting their physical bodies to a safer place where still the machines have failed to reach, it is this place that is the location of the field of cowards who did not fight to save Zion but chose to carry on living as electronic signals, plugged into the second matrix. These people/programmes are now known as the CC's or in long-term English language the cowardly comrades.

Many CC's travel between the somewhat safe second matrix and the real world to try and rebuild Zion, with some little success corresponding with very little hope and chance. The two men that were just killed were indeed human, or they appeared to be by analysis of the normal eye. But by Martyn's eyes, these were not men, but agents Smith, that he had known nearly a decade ago to be terrorising the great humans that tried to save Zion: Morpheous, Trinity and the One, Neo, all who the Creator said perished in the destruction of the city caused by Morpheous' lover Capt. Niobe when she intended to save the city with an electromagnetic pulse but instead disabled all electronics in Zion, including the defensive weapons, causing the second wave of Sentinels to annihilate Zion.

Smith was a programme created in the first matrix and was used to wreak havoc upon both the real world and the matrix, turning machine against man and man against machine. Currently in alliance with the machines, Smith has discovered the second matrix and the first two to have been temporarily disabled will surely within minutes transmogrify into two brand new agents and search out a leader to wipe out the human race, once and for all.

As Martyn thought this idea as if some great premonition had swarmed over him, just as he had described it in his mind, two new agents reloaded into the dead one's bodies and stood up and stared around the square. Martyn dashed from their view quickly, as not to be seen.

The two identical agents clicked their joints in their necks and slowly but surely walked down the cobble street and down into the suburbs of Brown District.

It had just occurred to Martyn that the four people he had seen on his computer screen before must have been part of Big Brother's new resistance within the CC's to keep the second matrix hidden.

Big Brother was another almost supernatural figure within the plot. He is a being, and I say being because we are not sure at this time whether he is human or machine, who surveys the whole of the second matrix and divided the humans into seven districts of colour, distinguishing the poor from the rich, the weak from the strong and the smart from the dumb.

Grey District which is where Martyn lives is the smutty part of the matrix, where many deadbeats who spend most of their time drinking and waiting for the machines to find them. There is a rarity in Martyn's case where a few of Grey District's rats can be declared worthy of intelligence and usefulness but just don't have the money or the strength to be upgraded to a different district.

Brown, Yellow and Orange Districts are relatively the same, displaying true colours from the finer of the working class citizens and where many of the infantry of the small CC army comes from.

Red and Blue districts are the middle class citizens whose jobs are to educate others and to command certain parts of the matrix such as Grey District to do as they please, with no democracy as far as the people of Grey District are concerned.

The smallest district of all is White District, where Big Brother himself is said to be situated and no doubt where the agents will soon be heading. It is the cream of the crop of the matrix. The best of the very best live there. Not much else to say, apart from they are in charge.

All are controlled by Big Brother but underneath the sheer dictatorship of the almighty Big Brother are the different districts warring with each other due to the control of the second matrix.

Martyn for the first time realises after ten years of suffering in the second matrix and after one hundred years of his family suffering in the real world that there is no government and that there is no fairness. That petty difference has caused implosion inside the second matrix which will contribute to the total annihilation of the human race.

The only alliance that is created among humans with other humans is when the order was given out to create the CC resistance against the agent Smith.

Martyn knows that humans can be a pathetic race but when they are threatened to the brink of extinction, they do pull together to at least fight before they give up.

Martyn moved away from the window and sat back down at his computer and watched the symbols and numbers of the matrix whiz down the screen. He then saw more agents streaming into the second matrix and found an emotion long buried in his heart that without the brainwashing-Big Brother, the human race would be able to conquer the machines and the agent Smith alike.

Martyn knew of others with such plans. Other CCs in districts Red to Grey who would agree with him. Martyn minimized the window of the matrix on his monitor and typed into his browser the name of a search engine. Martyn logged onto the Internet and began his search for others who wished to aid him in his quest for survival.

He found a part of the Web that had not yet been accessed by Big Brother's spies. They weren't watching him now. He would have a window of a few minutes to find someone else. Someone to help Martyn bring Big Brother, the machines and the agent Smith down.

Martyn clicked on the link to open up a chat room where he could browse for any other dwellers of the night that may be able to help him. A green list of names, numbers and disbanded underground organisations greeted Martyn's retinas. It occurred to him that the Web had not been updated since the CC's arrived here. He scrolled down a few names and found one, still active, with a window of a few minutes before Big Brother's spies disbanded the group. With a rush of adrenaline and excitement, Martyn double-clicked and opened the chat window.

_CCG/#M#classified/unknown user: Hello, is this the rebellion against Big Brother unit? I want to help._

_CCU/#Try#: **Do you now? What is your name and I might be able to consider uploading you to the chat room. **_

_CCG/#M#classified/unknown user: My name is Martyn, I'm from Grey District. Please upload me._

_CCU/#Try#: **First rule of thumb, never tell someone your name, how do you know who I am? Secondly, never tell anyone where you live; I could have you dead within a second. Yes, this is the rebellion against Big Brother unit, now what do you have that we need?**_

_CCG/#M#classified/unknown user: Well, not much, except I know how many agents Smith has planned to attack the city. _

This of course was not 100 accurate. Martyn only had a rough idea of how many agents were going to attack, and only because a virus had probably occurred in one of the sentinels and its eyes had betrayed it, showing Martyn the CC hundreds of thousands of agents nearby the human field where their bodies were all plugged in.

_CCU/#Try#: **Interesting. Maybe you should be uploaded. But being in Grey District isn't going to do you any favours. You may have got lucky with your bit of information. How do we as the RABB unit that you aren't going to lead us straight to Big Brother? **_

_CCG/#M#classified/unknown user: Good point. You'll just have to trust me. _

The connection that Martyn had with the member cut off and the matrix automatically maximized itself to his current window. He read the symbols with his weary eyes and saw a woman getting closer to him, or was he getting closer to her?

He suddenly felt himself being sucked into the computer screen and he homed in on one of the green symbols, which then split into millions of others. Martyn's body flew through the computerised matrix as a group of digitalised atoms and then automatically as if controlled by some mystic force, found his way to a green symbol that forced all the electrical impulses that had split as Martyn entered the computer to re-merge and form into his previous self but in a different place. Martyn, as millions of electrical signals had travelled the computerised matrix and had been uploaded in the HQ of the Rebellion against Big Brother or HQRABB for short.

Martyn got to grips with his eyes and scanned the room, which apparently was in yellow District due to the size and shape of the room.

In the shadows, a woman's voice spoke alerting Martyn and beginning the perilous adventure ahead.

"Okay, I've trusted you. Now tell me what you know."


	2. Briefing and Betrayal

Chapter two.

The woman was wearing some smooth yellow overalls showing which district she belonged to. She had short brown hair that flowed down to her shoulder beautifully and in her right hand she held a sci-fi handgun. She has smooth skin and dark brown eyes, like bottomless pools of darkness. She was the authority. No other way to explain it.

Martyn stared at her and was alarmed to see that 'yes' she had uploaded him into the chat room and he survived the process. But with the gun in her hand, would he survive her?

"Hello, what is your name?" Martyn whispered with some tiredness after being transferred by electrical impulse.

"Names are not relevant right now. I still don't know if I can trust you." She shouted ferociously and pointed the sci-fi handgun at my head.

"Well you trusted me enough to upload me. Plus, seeing as we have somewhat of a crisis on our hands with the agents coming to annihilate us, you don't really have a choice." Martyn retaliated, without a weapon, but armed with his confidence and armoured by his bushy grey hair.

She smiled her lush lips and closed her eyes calmly, whilst lowering her gun.

"You've got guts, I'll give you that. My name is Olivio and I am trying to start a group to get rid of our great leader. Ten years we have struggled since the capture of Zion under Big Brother's rule. We tried to escape the machines but instead were caught in his net and now there is not one room in the city that cannot be traced by him."

"And now you want to get even? But how?"

She walked over to the side of the room, where the cameras and speakerphones could not hear them, even though they would still be disable for another two or three minutes.

"There is a way. You see, everyone believes that this matrix is identical to the first. But is it?"

Martyn pondered on the thought. He looked utterly perplexed. Now that he thought about it for the first time, this matrix was a lot different to the first. Firstly, the second matrix came complete with the most advanced technology and its own ruler Big Brother where as the Creator ruled the last.

"Well, mostly, it is the same yes. It has the same code as the last one. Same power source. They are almost indistinguishable." I replied to her question.

"Only almost! You see, there are things that are different. I was one of the first to notice it when I came here. The districts. We didn't have that in the last matrix. So I began to weave in my head, the possibility that there were more flaws; flaws that we can't see at first glance. I did my research. My homework, if you will; on the new matrix. It seems that a virus on Zion's mainframe accidentally created it, hours before the final attack. The virus I believe is still there, keeping us alive. The same virus that allowed you to see all the agents gathering to swat us like bugs. And what is more baffling than this…is that they are using the virus as an uplink, a way to get to us. A doorway, so to speak. There, I have clearly demonstrated one vital difference.

Another is what is below the city. Hundreds of thousands of miles of mechanical pipelines big enough for mother ships of any organisation to fly through, connecting all of the districts together."

Martyn thought about this. Was what she was saying true? By strict rule of Big Brother, no districts were to be connected as it shows weakness. It allows the smuttier of the race to clutter the better. Logically, however, it seemed stupid to have seven different systems supplying food, water, waste removal to all seven different districts.

"Are you sure? The only way the districts communicate is by computer. That is how, illegally people travel from district to district, via, illegal as I say it again, uplinks…"

She cut him off. Her eyes darted towards the speakers and the digital screen nearby. They were trying to gain access to the room. The screen flickered with glimmers of green light. Adrenaline rushed through her blood and she knew they only had a few seconds to escape. She rushed to the computer that she used to upload Martyn.

"Computer! Quick! Martyn, I have trusted you. Now you must trust me. If they see us together, we will be killed. You either trust me on my theory or you die. It is your choice." She screamed at him, hysterically.

She tapped at the keys ferociously and clicked at the mouse and Martyn watched as her body dissolved into green symbols and at the speed of sound rushed into the computer screen, leaving him alone in the chat room.

The speakers came to life and an awful formidable, robotic voice boomed out of them.

"Outsider detected. Initiating deletion of illegal chat room. Loading defensive weapons against intruder of yellow district. Mini-guns armed. Locked on target. Ready to fire in five seconds."

Martyn looked at the computer screen and saw a flashing link. It read a message that somehow did not register in his mind:

**Uplink used 02:09:21. Completed signal transfer 02:09:43. Destination required. Uplink safe. Reload Uplink? **

Martyn wondered what whether to hit the return button on the keyboard or not. If he did he would narrowly escape the clutches of the evil demon hunting him and would speed digitalised towards an unknown destination or he could stay here and survive for about another three seconds before a computer-controlled mini-gun would pump him full of lead. What to choose? Unknown destination. He smacked down hard on the return button just in time to hear the first bullet cut the still, stagnant air as his body exited the terminal and by emergency power managed to route its way through a cable to a computer where he thought nothing existed.


	3. Journey into peril

Chapter three.

He woke after a heavy sleep in some foul sludge in the darkness. He looked around in the haze for Olivio who could just be seen because of her luminous overalls that glowed in the hungry dark.

"Where are we?" Martyn asked, still dazed from the dodgy travelling of the matrix.

"Not far from Grey District. We are in the sewers my good friend."

Recognising the foul stench, Martyn jumped to his feet with his last ounce of energy, spitting the oddities from his mouth.

"That's disgusting." He vomited, gurgling.

"You'll be saying how wonderful it is soon. How much you love it. The awe will take you over. For in this very sewer is salvation." She declared with awesome strength in her voice.

There was a sharp click and thousands of overhead lights shone from about thirty metres above. The sewer was huge, with a long thin river of waste running in the dead centre. Luckily we were only half way to the centre, where Olivio has hooked up an old computer with bits that she could find. There were old coke cans and bits of tin, a sheet of glass and old wires used to make the monitor. The computer itself was an old box, probably swiped from a warehouse somewhere or maybe found down here in the sludge, connected to a variety of different things including a nineteen-forty's gramophone that looked like it was used as a speaker to upload, download and uplink different electrical signals.

No wonder he felt so ill, the computer he had been uploaded to was an absolute wreck. But it was amazing that she had managed to get them out at all. She pushed me aside and clicked what appeared to be her mouse what really was just a piece of metal covered in rubber. She searched for the chat room and found what she was looking for. She hacked her way into a database of the mini-guns and cameras and managed to get a few glimpses of what had become of the room that they were in just a few minutes ago.

It had been indeed shredded to pieces by the mini-guns and the destruction of the computer had caused a small fire. Everything was gone.

"Was anything important in there?" Martyn asked her.

"No, not really, I just wanted to check to see if they saw you. Listen, third rule, if you are going to stay with me stay alive. Fourth rule, if you are going to stay alive, don't slow me down. Fifth rule, if you slow me down, I start shooting, okay?"

"Certainly are a lot of rules, aren't there?"

She sighed. He was going to be an absolute drag on this mission. He wouldn't survive a day.

"So what's next?" Martyn asked simply.

"There is a city ahead of this tunnel. I just don't know in what direction to go. I left the map in the chat room. There is a ship at the city that we can use to get to Big Brother."

"There's a city down here? Wow! But how?"

"Listen! You know those little goody-two-shoe bitches in the movies who say to the guys fighting 'Ask questions first, shoot later'"

"Yeah…" He trailed.

"Well I am not one of those girls! Keep your eyes open. Your mouth shut. And you'll learn a few things."

Olivio walked up to the cement paving that had been splattered with human waste and rolled up her sleeves to reveal a strange spherical gadget on a strap. She punched a few of the buttons on the rear side of the gadget and the screen flickered a little and exposed the code of the matrix and started to walk north of the computer, down the tunnel.

Martyn followed her, anxiously, wondering if, as she had said, if he would learn anything as their journey continued.

He wondered if the city was large or if it had an army, or possibly more people who wanted to join against Big Brother and his evil empire.

Ando so Martyn and Olivio travelled amongst the labyrinth of sewage passages until a bright white wall of light greeted them.

It was a huge floating luminosity that shone through the entire tunnel.

Olivio seemed happy to see the beauty of the shining white wall at the end of the tunnel.

"What is this?" Martyn asked, "Some kind of barrier?"

"Close. It is one of the gates to the engineering level to the city. It is made physically of light. One thing you should know, the light does not accept any being. Not one person. The codes for the gates have to be hacked for us to get through and I am telling you now that there will be gunfire. But, once they realise who we are, we should be okay. Take this."

She handed him a small silver case. There was a stylish print engraved onto the case with the letter 'G'.

Martyn opened the case and found six beautiful rounded grenades with purple jewels encrusted into them.

"Plasma grenades push the purple spots to activate them. When I hack the codes, I will send a peace signal through, but they will firstly still attack. See you on the other side."

Olivio walked up to the wall of light and Martyn followed. They both could feel a mesmerising force over them, like a tenacious strength over them, protecting the city from further harm.

Olivio took her gadget that was still attached to her wrist and sent it flying into the wall of light.

A default voice from the computer spoke out into the sewer.

"Accessing_ codes to Gate 307 of Veiled_ _Dungeon. Searching Internet for Codes. Codes discovered. Code UviTY7.0╣≥ђ__ך__Н65TRY#G#307. Overwriting gates."_

Martyn and Olivio watched as the light faded and two huge turrets appeared and four men; two on either side with auto-rifles in hand.

"Intruders! Open fire!" Shouted a guard on duty.

The guards loaded their guns and started shooting and thousands of bullets darted through the air obliterating the atmosphere around them.

Martyn felt the pressure building. It would be a matter of milliseconds before his body was pumped full of lead, and his heart seized to pump blood around his and Olivio's bodies.

Instinctively, Martyn reached for one of the grenades, and let it float from his hand and travel towards one of the luminous gun turrets. It imploded and the bullets nearby were sucked back into the blast killing the first two of the four guards.

"We need backup now! We need reinforcements!" Shouted a guard before being shot by Olivio's sci-fi handgun.

She beautifully jumped into the air, relying on the matrix itself to allow her to fly into the air at sluggish speed and fire her purple bullets of radiance into the surroundings killing her new enemies that had just arrived.

"We are friends! We do not want to harm you! Read my signal!" She screamed, whirling and twirling in mid air. She punched her arm forwards and allowed the gadget to wriggle on her wrist and transmit a signal via infrared.

Yet the bullets kept coming, minute ovals of brilliance speeding towards them and at the speed of light.

The bullets kept flying towards them but then an amazing scientist with her long hazel hair tied back in a bun, wearing a stained lab coat arrived on the scene and waved her arm across her face, her palm facing towards them and miraculously the guns soared into the air with a pure light around her. She floated into the air and drifted towards them.

The surroundings were silent. Every bullet had ceased to rip the air and her azure eyes of serenity cleared the place. She outstretched her arms to both sides above the bodies that Olivio had slain with her plasma weapons. She soared upwards and a little and then dropped back down and all the time her eyes and hands had glowed an unruly azure light.

Martyn and Olivio watched as the symbols of the Matrix rushed out of her and they saw all the energy inside of her pulsing like a spiritual power that urged the dead to return to Earth.

She was a powerful being. A supernatural being.

"Listen to me! The new fellows that walk amidst soil are our allies you fool! Put down your weapons! The woman there is our contact; Olivio and that man there her accomplice, Martyn of Grey.

And as for me, I am from the science labs of the supernatural. Do you remember the silly programme known as the Oracle, who said that when a programme deceives the mind of an unplugged human by means of showing them a ghost or an angel, they are a programme that is doing something they are not meant to be doing…well I am a programme. A rare one at that. One that undoubtedly you have not seen before. You will see many like me, new programmes, in your travels through this city that we call the Veiled Dungeon. However, I am doing my job by protecting this city by resurrecting its dead by means of Necromancy to create an army strong enough of defeating the one we call Big Brother!"

"And what are you called?" Olivio demanded. Martyn detected a tone of defence in her voice. She didn't like the new woman. She felt an acute resent towards her.

"My name is Boone, BiblioBoone."


	4. Tha'ar she shoots

Chapter Four.

Martyn and Olivio walked closer towards BiblioBoone and with some reluctance greeted her politely.

Boone was a tall woman, definitely taller than Martyn and, although she would never admit it, just taller than Olivio, who within the first few moment of meeting Boone had decided that this was one entity she couldn't get along with.

"I suppose you will want to see the city. Follow me." Boone stated with authoritativeness.

Blood swelled in Olivio's face, it wasn't an absolute resent for Boone that bubbled inside of her. It was an anomaly in her emotions, an emotion that she probably hadn't felt since a small child. Then again, Olivio hadn't been a child for very long.

Being only eleven at the time of the war at Zion and having to plug herself into the second matrix with her mother at a very young age had caused her to lose touch with some of the imaginative and remarkable feelings of childhood.

Loosing her father and four brothers to the war, and an Uncle Tank on the Nebuchadnezzar, Olivio had to grow up exceedingly fast inside the second matrix and now thinking about it, she wondered if she had ever encountered this feeling, even as a child.

As it grew in her body like a fiery charge waiting to be expelled by either her fists or her fingers triggering a bullet in her gun, Olivio knew what the feeling was, without even realising it she felt jealousy towards Boone as they walked passed the two turrets. She chuckled slightly and realised that she was missing out on valuable information.

"What's so funny? I don't see the idea of a Smith army finding us out being very funny! Just because you and your companion have had an easy life in the matrix for the past decade does not mean that we have had one also. This whole city is littered with exiled programmes and people dumped here by Big Brother, the recycling bin of a computer, if you will. Ergo, our resources have been limited and we more than any group wish to get rid of Big Brother." Boone explained.

"But why exile thousands of programmes?" Martyn asked, wonderingly.

"Why else? Because we became a threat. A.I. became a threat to humans and the whole of the matrix is one huge simulation yet it keeps the humans alive. Big Brother seemed to think that smart Programmes, the ones that had an opinion, the ones that didn't just do their prescribed job, were a threat to the human race. But I and many others believe that he is the threat of all threats. As soon as humans arrived here, he created the districts causing humans to turn against one another. As one pompous prick once said, cause and effect.

Now that there is an even bigger threat coming to kill us, we must destroy the first threat, to allow humans to unite and defend themselves. There is no other way, but death."

She turned away from them and carried on walking in silence. She was a very confident programme, indeed. They walked down a very narrow passage from the gun turrets to a large open square, which levitated in mid air with a humungous tower in the middle. All over the square there were ships, unlike any others that had obviously been created with spare parts from the sewers but had a touch of class printed on them, probably from the technology born from the labs, where BiblioBoone came from.

The city was made from mainly steel it glistened in the electrical lights from above and it seemed incredibly futuristic, given that resources were limited.

"I know that you are thinking," Boone said, all of a sudden. "Most of this steel is taken from old ships that get destroyed in the sewers. And there are a lot of them. It seems we are not the only ones trying to get to Big Brother. You see, Veiled Dungeon is not the only city underneath the matrix. There are thousands, possibly millions of other colonies that survive in the labyrinth of sewers, all littered with programmes, that have been forced out of the matrix."

"Well why not unite with the others to destroy Big Brother?" Olivio suggested.

"Because we can't get to them. We only know they exist because of an accidental signal transmitted by their radio tower within the code of the matrix. It took us nearly six years to find the signal and another three years to decode it. Like I said, our resources are scarce. The chances of finding them if we searched, are minimal and due to this army coming, we can't risk losing any more ships. And they probably feel the same."

"So what are we going to do about it? A small group of people, whoops I'm sorry Biblio, people and programmes, out to destroy Big Brother. If there is no army, no decent ships, no back up, how are we meant to do it alone? No one has ever managed it before in the past you say because you've found destroyed ships and Big Brother is still running wild." Olivio shouted at her, disgusted by her. It was almost a masterful debate weaving its way to the other's body and attacking with every energetic blow.

"You seem to forget, down here in the midst of sludge and waste, we have some of the smartest programmes ever created. They were not born, therefore they cannot be killed."

"But destroyed and made totally useless."

"There is a way. We have built one ship, equipped with more defence systems than you can imagine. It is three times the size of a normal battle-cruiser ship and almost six times as fast. It can adjust its shape to fit round tight corners and if I do say so myself, has quite a stylish beverage holder.

Not to mention, sixty mini-guns with unlimited ammo as long as one watt of electricity flows in emergency back-up power, six thousand five hundred plasma grenades, rocket launchers, auto-rifles, a hand gun for every crewmember and the ultimate way to travel." Boone said excitedly.

"What ultimate way to travel?" Martyn piped up, after hearing about the wonder ship.

"It can be for up to three minutes at a time go unnoticed by its surroundings, or in other words, invisibility and here is the real icing of the cake, it can by using the decoded signal of the radio tower here in Veiled Dungeon travel from The Second Matrix, to the Real World and The First Matrix, which still has not been completely taken over by machines and Smith."

"So you're telling us that this ship, whatever it may be called, can travel between three dimensions, at once? That's amazing!" Martyn exclaimed.

"It's the first of its kind, and with some assistance you, your comrade here and I shall travel to annihilate Big Brother."

Olivio nearly swallowed her tongue. Her travel with _that_. Uh-uh! No way! But she didn't seem to have a choice, by the time they had finished their conversation, BiblioBoone had lead them to the ship of their dreams that would carry them to the very ends of the earth, to civilisation and to isolation. It was built from what all ships were built from but it was truly massive, complete with beautiful state-of-the-art technology. It had four bodies. Four rounded compartments joined together with large cubed bulks at the ends, which were probably the control room and Weapons control. Olivio had never seen something so utterly incredible.

Jealousy fluttered away for a short period and was replaced by awe for a pure second when Olivio spoke.

"What's she called?"

"Titanoleon." She whispered, staring up, brainwashed by the ship too as if captivated by her own destiny, spinning in the abyss that was her unknown future.


	5. Ilfiltration

Chapter five.

Boone led Martyn and Olivio up to the entrance of Titanoleon. She was an amazing ship, beautified with splendour. As they walked up to the opening of the ship, like a huge gaping mouth on the rear of the ship, somewhere inside a lesser being had fallen into the hands of corruption.

Sanitea was a small programme. If she had been human she would have been soon coming out of her teen years. She had smooth, dark, skin and appeared to be utterly innocent as she stared at the amazing screen, dotted with the matrix symbols, flashing here and there.

Her job as the Hybrid Hacker was to scour the Matrix in search of any units that may be flickering nearby, preferably agents, bastards that were out to annihilate the remaining numbers of the human race.

Typing on her virtual keyboard, silently, she spotted one. It was a Smith agent.

The pale man dressed in a morbid black swam through the sea of green symbols and a ripple affect occurred on the monitor of the Titanoleon mainframe. It was a pattern that she had never seen before. Then she was drawn into the pattern under a hypnotic force and she encountered a virus. A new virus, a virus that she had never seen before.

It flailed around on the computer screen and for a fraction of a second the Titanoleon firewall failed and opened a doorway to the second matrix.

Smith swam forwards at the speed of light through the monitor crashing over her like a wave of death. He shoved his bulky, ever-white hand into her chest and smiled a sinister smile.

"Smith will suffice!"

Biblioboone led them through the gateway into Titanoleon. The corridor was long and spacious and every few feet an EMP charger was attached against the wall with a case containing a gun, a new type of gun.

"As I was saying, the Smith agents have got yet another upgrade. Do you remember the last upgrade, just before the Sixth One, Neo was killed, the way they could duplicate themselves?"

"Yes, I remember. They used a new type of programme to overwrite programmes." Martyn recalled.

"Well there new upgrade has caused them to become hosts, to take over the body of another. It is how we have lost some of our greatest ships and crews. So now ever ship has been equipped with a Hybrid Hacker to make sure no Smith agents are close by. Our programme is called Sanitea and she has the ability to transmogrify into liquid. We have made a joke; a cup full of Sanitea."

No one seemed to be laughing accept the esteemed telekinetic necromancer. They walked up to a junction and down to the Control Room. The first body of Titanoleon.

"Sanitea will be down here now, the operator, Lorelai and our on board researcher Boekbhav are both sleeping. Our captain will join us later.

This hallway holds the cabins where you will be sleeping."

Sure enough there were cabins as they got loser to the control room.

As they neared the room, they saw a small figure lying on the floor, motionless.

"Sanitea!" Boone screamed and broke into a run.

They erupted into the Control room and tested Sanitea's pulse. There was a pulse and she was happy to see so. Even if she was dead, Boone could bring her back with a wave of the hand.

"Awake!" she shouted and a flash of green light filled the room.

Sanitea awoke with a minute difference in her eyes. She was frightened.

"Where is it? An agent! An agent! Biblio, kill it! Kill it!"

She rose to her knees and then to her feet and peered behind Boone.

"Where? Where was the agent, Sanitea?"

"It came…I was…sleeping…it came for…" Sanitea trailed off. Her eyes glazed over and she looked back up at Boone.

"Oh my god, how embarrassing. I was sleeping; I must have had a nightmare. I feel awful to have worried you Biblio. I am so sorry. I think I just need some rest. Will you take over for me now?"

Boone didn't register quickly, but she noticed an odd stance in Sanitea pace away towards her cabin. She had looked different also. Like a new programme.

She looked so frightened, as if she had seen a ghost. But it was worse, she had seen an agent, invited it even, to control her body and take her hostage. And what was worse. Every single crewmember overlooked it as Sanitea walked away and let the virus develop inside her brain, crushing her from ever existing. Corrupting the ship before it had ever taken off. Here the story begins.


	6. Kamador's escape

Chapter six.

Lorelai and Boekbhav sat at the computers in the control room reading the code of the Matrix as the new members of the crew slept in their cabins.

Lorelai was an astonishing woman bound by intelligence with wonderful long strands of brown hair that hid her from the world that dared to view her, whereas Boekbhav, also bound by intelligence was quirky and open to the surroundings, she smiled almost all the time as she ferociously hammered away at her keyboard.

"So who are the new ones?" Lorelai asked Boekbhav as she swayed across the deck.

"I have no clue. Probably some new recruits. We will find out their relevance one the captain gets here."

"But why do we need new recruits? We are fine the way we are aren't we. Sanitea is the best HH we have and us as combined forces…nothing can go wrong as far as intelligence is concerned."

"Well there is your answer. Intelligence is done and dusted. But combat wise, apart from the captain and the Kung Fu that we all know, hand-to-hand combat isn't that great. Apparently, according to this website, Olivio, the new woman, is an expert in martial arts, kung fu and Jujitsu and can handle three hundred different weapons!"

"And the man…the sluggish one with no brain." Lorelai jabbed.

"His name is Martyn, a real live Zion breed. He was at the battle of Zion and as you can probably tell is a CC. He will have his uses."

Boekbhav had the second sight, which allowed her to just worm her way slightly into a scenario of the future. The scenarios didn't always come true but it had its uses and its great triumphant moments. There was a dark dormant power hidden in her that when under heavy pressure or inescapable doom, she managed to focus her psychic powers and guide her team to safety. This had happened once and since then she had considered herself worthy of the title: Oracle (which Biblioboone despised).

Lorelai was the operator of the ship and she had a fiery temper and was the first person to develop a self-operating system from within the matrix. Ergo, she could create entrances and exits from within any dimension, making her one of the most brilliant women alive.

She was born inside the second Matrix and apart from being the smart ass of the group; she was very intelligent and eloquent in everything that she did. She sat down at her monitor and stared at it for a while. She was bored and decided to browse the web.

She found some interesting comics that amused her for a while, like she used to do ever so frequently as a child.

Then the phone started to ring in her ear and the matrix window popped up, banishing the climax of the comedy/horror anime that she had been reading.

The captain was running inside away from three agents and he had on him a hands free kit and was speaking into it rapidly.

"Operator!" Lorelai shouted down the speaker.

"I need an exit, now, Lorelai, there are too many of them!" The captain replied.

"Yes sir, what are you doing in there anyway?" She tapped brutally at they keys and homed in on a green symbol which re-emerged as a grotty phone booth near the captain.

"Listen Lorelai, no time to explain. The exit?"

"Turn left!" She directed.

By this time, Boekbhav had rushed to the scene to see all the commotion.

"No your other left!" As the captain ran straight into a Chinatown stall, crashing down into a heap of vegetables, all the while the agents were catching up with him.

He got to his feet and carried on running towards the sound of a ringing phone. He saw the receiver gibbering on its hook and the agents started to open fire. Bullets flew through the air.

He sprinted and jumped to dodge the lead.

He leaped into the phone box and just as he put the receiver to his ear and escaped the matrix, a bullet pierced the phone and destroyed it.

He arrived back inside the ship from down on the lower deck.

Lorelai's dashing face peered down upon his face.

"Now what were you doing in the matrix. I didn't even know you were on board, Kamador." Lorelai persisted.

She irritated him just to see his reaction. He was a tall man with dark chestnut brown hair and hollow brown eyes. He wore all black to contrast his slightly peaky skin that was dotted with small tattoos including one that resembled a matrix symbol.

They heard all heard a stir in one of the cabins. Kamador climbed the ladder to the main deck and saw Martyn and Olivio standing in the corridor.

"Welcome to Titanoleon, I am Capt. Kamador."


	7. The way of the damned

Chapter Seven.

The seven people and programmes sat around the table at dinner sipping, a whitish grey consistency that tasted truly of nothing. Kamador, Martyn, Boone, Olivio, Boekbhav, Lorelai and Sanitea all ate in deep conversation.

"So Kamador, why were you in the matrix?" Lorelai questioned him, raising her eyebrows.

"No real reason. I just went to see if any agents were lurking around, which they seemed to be. I heard from another ship that for some strange reason they have started to occupy certain parts of the matrix more heavily. Including the building, where the old Oracle used to be situated."

"Stupid old bag! Why bother going there Kamador? She was the silliest bitch of them all and she was half the reason that this war spun out of control and killed Neo and the others in the first place." Biblioboone spat, disgusted with the mentioning of the oracle.

"Well for some reason they are guarding that building. Probably their new headquarters or something. I'm not sure. So now when ever anyone goes into the matrix, everyone be especially careful. An agent could be just under your nose."

The irony in this last sentence made Sanitea giggle under her breath. Her eyes darted this way and that. She saw her face in the spoon she was eating with and every now and then she saw the face of Smith leering back at her with his menacing eyes. She had to tell them. But then could she be sure? Was she sure? He was like a ghost haunting her ever since the crash in the control room. For now she wouldn't say anything. She finished her last mouthful of food and got gingerly up from the table and excused herself.

Suddenly she blanked out, but kept walking. She could hear a whispered song drifting through her. She peered at the monitor with the dazzling code flickering down the screen like a sheet of hail. With every lyric of this song, she shuddered. Then a soft piano entered and a clap of thunder overwrote it for a second. She saw Smith's face in the reflection of the emerald code and her skin went cold and the haunting song continued.

"_Where has my heart gone  
an uneven trade for the real world  
oh I...  
I want to go back to  
Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all"_

She heard the ghostly whisper sing to her. The melody of the song pursued her and as she swayed this way and that, her lips curled into a crooked smile and in front of her mind, a picture of Smith flickered and no more did he seem so sinister. She embraced him and the picture stayed there.

The Titanoleon light flickered a little and failed to illuminate the room totally. Sanitea walked down the passage slowly and turned into her cabin, forever smiling as the horrific parasite, took her over, with slow pain ebbing at her mind, taking her into a world where there was no return.

Back in the dining quarters, no one had seen Sanitea quietly slip out of the room and had ceased to talk about the oracle under Boone's strict orders.

"So when will we be ready for take off?" Boekbhav asked her captain.

"Straight after dinner." Kamador replied.

"Great. Now we can really se what this puppy can do." Olivio screeched, glancing at Boone with a look that said 'now let's see who's so great.'

The group took their last mouthfuls of the meal and proceeded to the main deck, where the lights had blown.

"Oh great ship, even the basic electrics aren't working!" Olivio shouted, looking over at Boone. "This is useless, I mean, how do you expect to master inter-dimensional travel with a ship that can't even handle a few lighting circuits."

"Oh do shut up Ollie." Martyn countered. The whole deck was silent and then the group heard a quiet humming. A small tune coming from Sanitea's room. It flowed right through the deck and the lights flickered back on.

"Don't worry; she's just humming some song she probably heard." Boekbhav said.

Everyone got in his or her seats apart from Olivio, who stared down the hallway, listening to the tune, wondering where she had heard it before. A chill travelled her body and as the ship lifted off the ground, she sat down too for comfort. Although she knew she closer to home than she had been in a long time, she felt the isolation of the matrix smother her just as the soothing melody of Sanitea's hum had taken the breath from her lungs.

Titanoleon hovered off the ground and as they slowly drifted into the gate leading down to the other side of the tunnel, Sanitea's humming ceased. It was quiet on deck. Not silent. Just quiet, for the matrix that hailed down on the screen made the computers hum too, like a chorus of under-screeching that only she, Olivio, seemed to hear. She closed her eyes and the terror began.


	8. Dropping like flies

Chapter eight.

The ship travelled for a good six hours in the maze of sewers before they found a place vast enough to set her down.

"Do we actually know where we are going? I heard a story when I was a kid that it is impossible to reach Big Brother." Olivio stated, remembering her childhood in yellow district.

"Well, that before was true, but with this new technology we will find a way to get to him." Kamador replied, positively.

"So we have no strategy whatsoever?" Martyn chipped in.

"I wouldn't say that. There is a programme known as Gelmir Bullet, he is as old as the…oh I remember that you don't like her…he is nearly as old as the matrix itself and I am sure knows how to get to Big Brother. But he is somewhat hard to get to. Every six hours he copies himself and flees into the matrix as to keep people from discovering him. He is the third most wanted programme in the system."

"Is this the first or the second matrix we are talking about here?" Martyn asked, confused himself.

"The first, meaning that we will have to plug ourselves into the matrix to find him." Kamador said.

"And this Gelmir Bullet programme, is he on our side?" Olivio questioned.

"Definitely not!" Boone exclaimed. "At the gates of Zion he disarmed the gates and allowed the sentinel armies to come right through. He betrayed us. Which is why he is wanted. He will be heavily guarded, but we know where he is, which people haven't been able to do for over seven years. We have just over four hours to get to him. So we are going in…now!"

Everyone got out of his or her seats and streamed towards the uploading system.

"Lorelai, I am going to need you for this one. You can't stay here; you have to come with us. Sanitea can act as operator."

"Why? I can act as operator from within the matrix."

"Remember what I said before, how many agents there are in the matrix now. If you die, as our only way out inside the matrix, we all die. So pass over the duties to Sanitea who will stay behind. We need your combat skills."

"Okay." She said, hurt by Kamador's bluntness and shocked by the danger that the matrix held. She walked over to her monitor and pocketed a small device, which rather looked like a marble.

Sanitea watched and smiled a crooked smile once they all lied down and she pushed the needles into their sockets and they all flew in the matrix. She sat down back at the monitor and waited for smith to give her the orders.

The six of them flew threw the green code and materialised next to a phone that run incessantly in a dark room, probably an old, abandoned apartment building. Kamador picked up the phone.

"We're in Sanitea; I've got my mobile on for when we are ready for an exit." He rang off.

He walked out of the room and down the dismal hall.

"Where are we?" Martyn asked Kamador, trying to keep up with his pace.

"We are in the computer fabric of the matrix X08767654R or what the unplugged would call New York City."

He opened the door and stepped out onto the sky-scraping street. It was a rainy day in the matrix and not a lot of people were about. It was quiet and Olivio re-encountered the feeling she had on the ship. It was an eerie hollow feeling and she stepped dead in her tracks and listened to the simulated wind. She could hear Sanitea's song again, following her, even though she was separated from her body.

"This doesn't feel right." She whispered.

"What doesn't feel right?" Boone turned on her.

"I've got an awful feeling."

"Oh its just first time nerves."

They carried on walking down the rainy boulevard and saw eventually a stairwell leading down to dimly lit underground tunnel that connected on side of the street to the other. There rocking in the middle, with no adequate clothing on, was Gelmir Bullet.

Olivio reached for her sci-fi handgun. Kamador pointed his rifle at the tramp.

"Get up, we know its you!" He shouted.

The tramp chuckled and spoke in a coarse voice.

"By the time I get to my feet, you will all be dead." Gelmir laughed louder. His laugh became a deafening echo in the tunnel and at either end of the tunnel, two agents appeared, smiling. They ran to the centre of the tunnel where the group stood. They waited, trapped in their surroundings, with the deafening laughter of Gelmir.

"How come we didn't see them? Why didn't Sanitea warn us?" Boekbhav shouted.

"No time for explanations now…we need to find a way out."

The agents ran faster towards the group and time was running out. Martyn reached for a plasma grenade in his pocket left over from the assault at the strange gate of Veiled Dungeon.

He squeezed the spot and threw it up to the ceiling and the group ducked. Creating a hole in the road and roof above.

"Come on let's go!"

They all jumped up onto the road and started to run. They all turned around and watched as the agents followed up the hole.

Kamador reached for his ultra-Uzi and fired bullets at the agents who dodged every one. Olivio shot sci-fi pellets at them too and Martyn threw EMP grenades that he had been given back on the ship; however no weapons held them back for very long.

Kamador grasped his mobile phone and dialled the operator Sanitea.

"Find us an exit, quick Sanitea!" He screamed over gunfire.

"Yes, captain. There's one real close, an office building to your left. Second floor, office six."

He rang off. And ran towards the dark grey building. There were security guards as they ran into the building.

"Security, drop your weapons!"

Without a second though Lorelai fire two bullets into each head with dazzling speed. They darted up the stairs and down the corridor, only just missing a wave of bullets.

They ran by office one, two, three, four and five but still could hear no phone ringing. Office six.

They all bolted in one after the other and there was a small, piggish man who looked alarmed to see all these people.

Lorelai put a bullet in his head and looked for a phone on the desk. There was one, but it wasn't ringing. Martyn threw a grenade into the corridor and the blast caused the ceiling to collapse and the rubble blocked them in. It would buy them a minute. He closed the door and locked it.

The phone finally rang every chime like a dose of relief in their hearts. Kamador answered the phone.

"Quickly Sanitea get us out of here!"

"Hello Captain." Sanitea said calmly over the phone.

"What are you waiting for Sanitea, get us out of here."

All the time they could hear the agents shifting the rubble outside and gunfire as they killed any bystanders.

"I think I'll wait…I'm sorry it had to be this way Kamador. We were never going to win. You were never going to win."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"We have no future. What are we trying to do? We were all happy in Veiled Dungeon, why are we trying to stop him. Big Brother and Smith will always win. I will win."

"You! You're…you're smith!"

"Oh god!" Boone whimpered and a tear dropped from her eye.

"It took you that long to figure it out. If you had been quicker you might have been able to save her."

"Save who?"

"Boekbhav."

At that moment, Boekbhav's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell lifelessly to the floor with a hollow dark thump. She was dead. Instantly they all knew and the movement from outside joined with screams from the inside mangled their minds.

"Fuck you!" Kamador screamed down the phone.

"I'm sorry. This is the way it has to be. The only way. Everyone has a purpose in life and my purpose is to see the light. Smith is right. Smith did suffice. And your purpose Kamador is to die along with all your friends, all at once. That is your purpose, not a total waste. But do you know what a total waste of purpose is…Boone. What a waste of time, inside those labs, trying to find a way to let the human race survive, only to die trying."

Kamador's eyes looked at Boone, whose face was struck with horror as she fell spinelessly to the ground too, next to Boekbhav's body.

Lorelai screamed, but then remembered something.

The small marble in her pocket was the matrix-operating device. She could make her way back onto the ship. She squeezed the tiny marble and evaporated into green symbols.

Back on the ship, the heart monitors of Boone and Boekbhav sounded a flat note signifying their death. Sanitea was still on the phone to Kamador and circling Olivio's body holding the plug that kept her alive.

Lorelai reached for a gun attached to the wall of the deck and walked closer to Sanitea who had changed since she last seen her. She was dressed in a black suit as the agents were but it was her sweet voice down the phone and her hands pulling the plugs. Only a metre away now Lorelai stood aiming the gun right at Sanitea's small head.

"And who but the brave Olivio, who spent her life in fear of us. Now she will embrace us."

"Embrace this!" Lorelai shouted and pulled the trigger, killing Sanitea before she even knew what hit her. The phone that she was holding slipped out of her hand and Lorelai grabbed it and spoke down to her captain.

"Kamador, it's me Lorelai."

"Lorelai, are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine."

She hit the upload button and the four remaining crewmembers stood over the dead bodies, letting their tears dilute their friend's blood.

They lay at rest now and before the crew stopped crying they heard the end of Sanitea's song over the code of the matrix, leaving them in a silent darkness, as the green code rained down forevermore.


	9. Lazarus

Chapter nine.

Kamador took his leather coat and laid it over Biblioboone and Boekbhav and took Sanitea's body and laid it in her cabin. It sounded malicious but researchers like Boone would want to study how Smith hacked inside of her. Sanitea would have wanted, even in death, to put a stop to the raging war.

"For now we are going to need a new Hybrid Hacker, Lorelai, will you?"

Lorelai rubbed her eyes and let the tears dry. She nodded.

"We will need to replace her as an operator. Olivio, are you up for it?"

Olivio, who was still staring at the leather cloak but with an identical nod of the head, accepted her new position. She sat down at her monitor and punched in her details and readied herself, only to realise that she was at the wrong monitor but still under some hypnotic force, browsed the late Boone's computer. There were various files and icons on her desktop on her research into Big Brother and the mysterious signal from other colonies in the sewers.

Olivio searched the discs that towered on top of the computer tower and read the spines that reflected the dead researcher. Then something caught her eye. A disc that read: Biblioboone repliKATE (Hehehe).

"Kamador! Quickly, over here!" Olivio shouted and the shout attracted her trusty companion, Martyn and secondly Lorelai and lastly their captain, Kamador.

She held the disc in front of their eyes. Their eyes darted to the words printed upon the disc.

She opened the disc drive and inserted the disc and watched the monitor as the matrix froze in its tracks and a head erupted from the green symbols, made out of the green symbols themselves.

"Is this thing on? Hello. My name is Biblioboone, programme number: Ln2niner654. Self developed no creator. In the event of my destruction and deletion from the matrix, I wish for my fellow crewmembers to revive me from this copying programme saved on this disc. I saved a replica of myself on that programme known as Spoekboone. To upload me take the signal from the matrix, indicating my death and upload it into this file. You will find the signal on my vital signs monitor above my body. On doing this, you must get rid of my previous body as errors could occur, possibly manipulating the ship's electricity, computers and weapons control. Do this by deleting Biblioboone from the matrix. So as soon as you have uploaded Biblioboone's signal into Spoekboone delete it from the history. See you soon."

The matrix returned to its normal state and the programme that Boone had talked about and sure enough there was a file named Spoekboone. Kamador rushed to Boone's body and tapped the screen above her head and just as the programme had promised a signal was there, floating in the matrix. He dragged it out of the screen and carried the signal over to the other monitor and printed it in.

Suddenly, the computer tower jerked.

"Quick, delete it!"

Kamador rushed back and hit the delete button on the monitor and the signal rushed away from existence. He ran back to the other monitor and on it Boone had appeared with different clothes on, scarlet streaks in her hair and piercing green contacts.

The monitor screeched and whined and a siren went off down in the deck. It was using a lot of electricity. It was amazing that the four of them were reincarnating one of their fellow crewmembers through a computer. Life goes on after death, the four of them thought simultaneously.

Suddenly the monitor exploded into a flash of emerald light and billions of green symbols of the matrix flowed out of the computer at dazzling speed and wove themselves into a body of Spoekboone, who stood taller than ever in the centre of the room.

"Bib-I mean-Spoekboone, your alive!" Kamador shouted, in disbelief.

"Thank you so much for bringing me back. It was really weird for a second there. I felt like I'd been sucked down a giant plughole. I suppose heaven doesn't exist for programmes." She said, chuckling.

"It's amazing." Olivio said, struck by the awe that had captivated her once before.

"Does this mean that you can resurrect Boekbhav?" Martyn asked remembering Boone's amazing necromancy techniques.

"Sadly no, when I created myself, I couldn't upload my abilities. I'm just a kung fu expert now." And with that she kicked him in the head and he spat blood onto the floor and he retaliated with a powerful jab in her side.

"What was that for?" Martyn screamed.

"Nothing." She laughed. "Just wanted to see your reaction. Do you know it's not very sportsman of you to hit a woman."

"Well being on this ship, I've learnt one thing. To stay alive you need to kill, no matter if it is man, woman or agent."

She smiled.

"One second. I've just remembered something. Didn't we have an argument about programmes dying, Boone?"

"Yes we did. And now you can see that I was the victor in that argument as I have cheated death, yet was destroyed."

Olivio sneered at her. She hated Boone being right. Just because she had managed to worm her way out of eternal shutdown. It really pissed her off.

"So, where is the bitch that killed me?" Spoekboone said.

"In her cabin. And you should know, it wasn't Sanitea, it was Smith. Smith hacked the hacker and controlled her to kill us. Luckily, I managed to get back on board with my self-operating device that Kamador insisted I leave here. So yes, I am to thank for our lives." Lorelai bragged.

"Okay, great. I can examine her body to see how Smith hacked into her."

They all strolled down to where Sanitea's cabin was. The corridor was dimly lit as the electricity still flickered on and off due to the power surge to Boone's monitor. As they stood talking outside her door for a minute as Kamador searched for the key to her cabin, Lorelai noticed the slippery floor and looked down to see that it was moist with what looked like water.

"Look." She pointed to the floor and terror sank into their hearts.

Kamador found the key and inserted it into the lock and turned the stiff door. It creaked open and they all held their breath, thinking the unthinkable.

Sanitea's body was missing and the lights flickered out and behind them, Olivio jogged to an EMP gun holder fearing that if she ran she would slip into a cold puddle that was Agent smith in his metamorphosed matter and prey on her as he had done to their dear friend. She grasped the gun and held it close only to hear the ghostly whisper of Sanitea's song drifting amongst the halls.

"Where has my heart gone  
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger  
I want to go back to  
Believing in everything

I still remember."


	10. Friend or foe

Chapter ten.

The five of them met in the dining quarters after each of them had charged a gun or in Martyn's case refreshed his case of grenades.

"What are we going to do? We won't be able to catch Gelmir Bullet if we can't go into the matrix, not to mention, we won't survive if we can't drink."

"We will drink." Kamador said bluntly.

"We will? But how?" Lorelai questioned him, and as he looked up, he saw for the first time, a streak of fear in her face. There was certain vulnerability about her since Sanitea's escape for it had been her who had murdered her just hours before.

"We will all drink until one of us gets the unlucky draw. There is no other way, and not all of us shall go into the matrix at one time. As captain of Titanoleon, no longer your friend, but your commander I am authorizing a new rule on this ship. No one is to go into the matrix without letting another know, and when a group go into the matrix, two shall remain behind; an operator and a guard."

"But Kamador, three people can hardly make any change inside the matrix, and what if we are killed? We should turn back." Martyn screeched at him.

"We are not turning back! Not now! We will finish her. We will shoot the person that she takes over next. Be it me or you, we shall kill them as a crew, for the good of the human race, she will die. Sanitea is not going to jeopardize every life on this ship." He shouted back in a fiery rage.

"Kamador is right. We need to get rid of Big Brother. He is the only reason that we are trapped here, as we were trapped in the first matrix before. As a race, we must prevail." Spoekboone preached, whose streaks had morphed into a cool blue.

"Well I don't think he is. We shouldn't be so barbaric. It isn't Sanitea. It's Smith. Lorelai didn't manage to kill him before, what makes you so sure that if he takes over another one of us, you will be able to kill him? It is a weak plan."

Kamador reached for his gun.

"If you have a better idea you fucking moron, I would like to hear it and if you don't like it why not get the fuck off my ship…or better yet, why not kill you right now?" He fired, fiercely.

"Stop! Just stop," Spoekboone screamed above the quarrel. "We are on the same side. Why are we going to kill each other?"

"Why don't you practice what you preach, Boone, you were the one saying we should kill Sanitea, who I believe is on our side." Olivio shot.

"Sanitea is dead!"

"No she isn't, it's Smith!"#

"Shut the fuck up!"

"Why don't you, you whore!"

Lorelai fired into the air and the bullet bounced off the ceiling and silence was heard.

She looked at them, with tears in her eyes and they all stopped arguing. None of this was any one's fault. There had been luck in the resurrection of Boone and now it seemed like that luck had floated away.

Boekbhav's death brought no solace, no good. She died in vain and her death couldn't be used to their advantage.

The shipmates' lives were falling apart. Lorelai ran to the tap in the corner. She stretched her arm to the shelf that housed the glassware and grasped a small plain drinking glass and poured herself a drink of colourless water.

"Cheers." And with the burning tears rolling down her cheeks she took the water in gulp after gulp, not caring.

They stood in astonishment and looked at each other and watched Lorelai drink, unaffected by the parasite of the ship. She had been lucky.

"You see, we are not going to pit ourselves against each other. We will do what Kamador says and if he is wrong, Martyn, you do what you want. Only it will take years to walk back to Veiled Dungeon. We have no choice. What do you suggest?"

Martyn stared blankly at her and he looked down and muttered his defeat and then looked back up towards Kamador and apologised.

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Lorelai is right; we are not going to fall to Smith."

Then, as peace was restored amongst the crew, the lights dimmed and the emergency alarm rung through out the ship and the group ran to the control room where the main screen had betrayed fifty Sentinels swimming their way towards Titanoleon.

The mechanical squids manoeuvred their way through the sewers and a small clock in the corner stated the time the crew had left.

**Time until impact: 01:07 **

"Shit! Weapons control, now!" Kamador screamed, "I will steer us away."

As Martyn, Olivio, Boone dashed down the hall towards the weapon's control, Lorelai stayed with Kamador as he voice-activated flight mode.

"What are you doing?" Kamador questioned her.

"You can't pilot this ship on your own. I am helping whether you like it or not." She sat down into the co-pilot seat. "Computer, activate co-pilot systems."

He smiled at her and the ship touched off the ground.

Boone, Martyn and Olivio reached the weapon's control just in time and shouted out their commands to the computers.

"Martyn you take grenade control, Olivio mini-guns! I'll handle EMP blasts." Boone shouted.

They sat down and put what looked like glasses on over their eyes and grasped hold of tiny joysticks and leered at the swarm of sentinels that squirmed their way towards them.

The ship jumped up and flew into the main avenue of the sewer and started to speed away and in turn the sentinels sped up to catch up with Titanoleon.

Kamador screamed down the intercom.

"Fire!"

Martyn pushed the red button and forced three grenades into the school of mechanical squids and watched at three of them dropped from the group in fiery blasts.

Olivio held down her green button and watched as a beam of bullets pierced the air and fired at the squid.

They still swam though towards the ship with frightening speed and for every one that the crew managed to destroy, another three would appear in place.

"We could really use that EMP blast now, Boone." Kamador screamed down the intercom.

"It's charging, if I fire it now, it won't kill enough of them."

Olivio activated rockets control and sent four of them into the crowd, destroying the front line of their army.

They fired their bullets, rockets and grenades but they weren't quick enough. A sentinel managed to creep its way onto the roof of the ship and laser it's way down into the corridor. Olivio deactivated the gun turrets you was using and reached for her charged EMP gun and shot down the corridor at the mechanical creature and an electrical shout of electromagnetic pulse disabled it and it fell dead to the floor. But then another six darted down the hole.

"Boone!" She screeched, terrified as they flew towards her in a second.

She fired the ammo at them and the first dropped.

"Got it!" She screamed and hit the button down hard and a spherical wave of blue electricity washed its way through the scene and caused Olivio to fall flat on her face and the sentinels, inside and out fell to the ground, twitching with malfunction.

Olivio got up after her fall and peered through the camera. They were all dead. But as she turned to report back to the control room, she lipped again, under the moist floor. She had forgotten during the assault that Smith/Sanitea was still at large and had slimed her way to the weapons control. Fear struck her and she turned around. Martyn and Boone were still sitting at their stations. Could one of them been infected? Both had glasses of water next to them, due to their _resistance _against Sanitea. One was infected.


	11. Bloodshed of the ambitious

Chapter eleven.

Spoekboone turned around and stood up from her chair normally, poised in her normal lanky, towering, quivering and annoying position. Martyn stayed sitting and staring into the virtual reality goggles like a stone statue with cold eyes penetrating the blank space outside of Titanoleon.

Olivio reached for her communicator on her belt and spoke down it to Kamador.

"She's got Martyn," Olivio whispered and slowly and officially, Martyn rose from the seat and the lights flickered out.

Olivio screamed and she fired into the distance and her sci-fi handgun pellets bounced off the floor and started a small fire on one of the monitors nearby. The ochre illuminated the room for a second and Olivio and Boone saw the sinister eyes of Sanitea peering back at them, like two hypnotic pools of darkness. Olivio squeezed the trigger and another few bullets exploded out of the gun and struck the fiend, only then did Martyn's body flicker back and then Sanitea appeared again like a powerful nemesis, never dying.

" Olivio, why do you resist me? Why do you persist in fighting against Smith? You cannot win."

Sanitea lunged forward and at that time Kamador jumped into the room and pushed her back into weapon's control and then Martyn appeared unconscious on the floor, next to Sanitea whose body was bleeding from the head, where Lorelai had punctured her skull before with the EMP gun.

Smith in all his horrific glory stood up with a speck of blood trickling down his cheek. He wiped it from his pale face, grunted and moved forward.

"GO! GO!" Kamador shouted and Boone and Olivio dashed from the room.

Kamador ran at the agent on his ship screaming and assaulted him with an array of attacks yet Smith stepped aside and with just a few simple reflections of the arm, deflected every single one of Kamador's attacks.

"Why do you always try to defeat me when clearly you shall fail?"

Smith executed a powerful kick and Kamador flew into the corridor. He spat blood from his mouth and looked up with tempting eyes. Smith ran at him but before he reached him, Kamador shouted.

" Computer, Weapon's control door. Lock!" He commanded at his computer and the door shut down and Smith smacked into it and fell to the ground next to Sanitea and Martyn, unconscious.

Back in the control room, everyone was watching on the monitors as Smith regained consciousness and pounded on the door, trying to escape.

Kamador pushed down on the intercom button and spoke down the microphone.

"It seems we have outsmarted you this time, Smith."

" You seem to forget, there is one of you and ten million of me! If I die, there are still going to be more."

"But our chances improve with you dead, unable to terrorise my ship anymore. Now tell us where Gelmir Bullet is. Or we kill you."

" I wouldn't tell you, you despicable excuse for a man."

"Tell us!"

Smith walked over to Martyn's body and menacingly bit into his neck savagely and pulled a huge chunk of flesh, blood and muscle away, exposing his collarbone. Martyn screamed as he awoke from his slumber.

"Lookie here, She's dead! You are all going to die!" His mouth moved with droplets of crimson red blood creeping down below his chin.

"You bastard!" Boone shouted down.

He smiled a sinister smile with terror in his face as he took another chunk out of Martyn's neck. Martyn's harrowing pain was felt over the monitor.

Lorelai and Boone had tears in their eyes.

Martyn was poised in a position where he couldn't get up. He lay on the floor of the control room helplessly bleeding, his eyes pleading for help.

"HELP ME!" Martyn whelped.

There was nothing they could do but watch him die. They couldn't risk going in to save him, Smith could get out and wreak havoc once again.

"Let me out of here!" Smith screamed at them.

"Not until you tell us where Gelmir Bullet is."

"Then your friend here will have to die." Smith yelled.

And with that, Smith took Martyn's hand and ripped off two of his fingers and allowed blood to gush out of his wounds. He screamed again and again and Kamador started to cry too.

Lorelai had something in her hand and she held it up to Kamador. She had scribbled something on a piece of paper as to not let Smith hear. Plus she didn't think she could say it aloud, it was too upsetting.

Put him out of his misery.

She turned away and allowed a deep sob to echo through out the ship. There was a gas grenade in every room in case of internal attack. It was directly above Martyn and could even be seen on monitor. Smith hadn't noticed it yet.

Martyn wailed over the monitor as Smith took another chunk from his arm, ripping him to shreds.

Kamador powered up the grenade and entered a programme for internal attack.

He hit down hard on the intercom.

"Martyn! Take a deep breath!"

Smith looked up and saw the grenade and his eyes darted this way and that, searching for a last minute escape.

"Tell us where Gelmir Bullet is you asshole!"

Something clicked in Martyn's head as he heard Kamador over the intercom. He let go of his breath and shouted out to the remaining crewmembers, with his last ounce of strength.

" The signal is 8y7gh/exe.London.htm he is there for the next three hours!"

Smith turned on Martyn and raged at him, bite after bite never stopping.

Kamador dropped the gas grenade and the room clouded with a poisonous green gas and the screams died down and were overwritten by two beings coughing and coughing as the toxic vapour invaded their lungs and took their life away.

Kamador shuddered as he hit the decommissioning button and freed the room of the gas and as the haze filtered away he saw Smith lying dead on top of a bloody carcass that no longer was human, but just bloody meat that stained the room. Martyn was dead and the reign of Smith on titanoleon was over.

There friend was dead and now only left on the ship were Kamador, Olivio, Boone and Lorelai; all quivering in the emotion that was stirred as man ate man and evil triumphed over good.

Tears dropped from their eyes and down to their mouths and they reminisced the piercing flaming eyes of smith as he tore into Martyn who lay paralysed on the cold floor as the predator slowly ate him.

"He wanted help. And we didn't give it to him."

"There was nothing we could do. Smith would have killed us all SpoekBoone if we opened the door. Plus Martyn would have never survived those bites."

"He wanted help and we didn't give it to him!" She screamed, with tears stinging her eyes.

She ran down to her cabin and slammed the door.

Lorelai sat confused about what to believe. She swallowed hard and lost her breath. She shook her head and too departed from control room, ushering a sob. Her door clicked almost silently down the hall and Olivio sat down her head in her hands crying shamefully.

Although close together, the crew were totally isolated with blood on their hands immersed in a guilt that could not comfortably rest upon their shoulders.


End file.
